Securing small business - the role of information technology policy

As small and medium enterprises develop their capacity to trade  electronically, they and their trading partners stand to gain considerable benefit from the resulting transaction efficiencies and business  relationships. However, this raises the question of how well small business manages its IT security and the threats that security lapses may pose to the wider trading network. It is in the interest of all members of an electronic trading network, as well as governments, to assist smaller companies to secure their business data. This paper considers the relationship between IT security management and IT policy implementation among small  businesses involved in business-to-business eCommerce. It reports the results of a survey of 240 Australian small and medium businesses  operating in a cross-industry environment. The survey found a low level of strategic integration of eCommerce along with inadequate IT security among the respondents, despite the fact that 81% were doing business online and 97% identified their business data as confidential. Businesses which implemented satisfactory levels of security technologies were more likely than others to have an information technology policy within the organisation. The paper proposes a model that outlines the development of security governance and policy implementation for small and medium businesses.

バングラデシュにおける貧困削減と人間の安全保障

バングラデシュにおいて、貧困削減と人間の安全保障は喫緊の課題である。人口の約4割が貧困線以下の生活水準を余儀なくされているうえ、人権問題や災害対策等々の非経済的側面においても問題山積である。具体的に大きな問題と考えられているのは、暴力、差別、難民、子ども、天災である。天災以外は日常リスクの範疇に入る問題であり、特にマイノリティ、難民、女性、子どもといった脆弱層に対して配慮が必要とされる。 　近年のバングラデシュの経済パフォーマンスは他の最貧国と比較すると優れている。経済成長率はここ10年程度、平均5%という比較的高い値で推移している。結果として所得面のみならず非所得面（教育、ジェンダー、保健）における貧困削減も一定程度進んでいるが、貧困削減と人間の安全保障は依然として大きな課題である。 　「人間の安全」は国家が保障することが望ましいのであるが、現状においてバングラデシュでは、残念ながら国家に多くを期待できない。人々の安全を守るはずの警察でさえ、機能に大きな問題があるといわれている。 　バングラデシュにおける貧困削減、人間の安全保障を達成するために日本が援助する際に留意すべきことは2点ある。第一は、国家のガバナンスの改善への協力の必要性である。具体的には公務員の能力開発への貢献が考えられる。第二は、バングラデシュが経済成長、貧困削減共に一定程度の成果を上げていることから、貧困層の人々の生活がこれ以上悪くならぬよう支えるための援助のみならず、より積極的に、貧困層の所得稼得の能力や機会を増大させることを企図した援助も有効と考えられることである。後者のタイプの援助としては投資奨励や輸出奨励のための援助が含まれよう。輸出やそれを目的とした投資を奨励することにより、貧困層の雇用機会拡大が期待できるからである。事実、バングラデシュにおいては輸出指向の縫製業が貧困層に大きな雇用機会を提供していることが知られている。 　このようにバングラデシュにおいては、これまで達成した経済成長をより進めて貧困削減の歩みを速めることと、都市・農村における人間の安全保障の達成が同時に求められているのである。

Shadow policing: the boundaries of community-based ‘policing’ in Northern Ireland

The intention of this article is to provide a structural and operational analysis of policing beyond the police in Northern Ireland. While the polity enjoys low levels of ‘officially’ recorded crime as part of its post-conflict status, little empirical analysis exists as to the epistemological roots of security production outside that of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The empirical evidence presented seeks to establish that beyond more prominent analyses related to paramilitary ‘policing’, the country is in fact replete with a substantial reservoir of legitimate civil society policing – the collective mass of which contributes to policing, community safety and quality of life issues. While such non-state policing at the level of locale was recognised by the Independent Commission for Policing, structured understandings have rarely permeated governmental or academic discourse beyond anecdotal contentions. Thus, the present argument provides an empirical assessment of the complex, non-state policing landscape beyond the formal state apparatus; examines definitions and structures of such community-based policing activities; and explores issues related to co-opting this non-state security ‘otherness’ into more formal relations with the state.

Security of employee entitlements : corporate governance issues

Following the collapse across the last decade of a number of large organizations such as Enron in the USA and several domestic organizations including Ansett Airlines, HIH Insurance and One.Tel, much discussion has ensued about the need to secure employee entitlements. However, tangible improvements in this area are elusive. Good corporate governance policies would suggest that deferred obligations as well as current debts should not be neglected and that appropriate arrangements be put in place to adequately fund employee entitlements. In this paper we consider recent Australian attempts to introduce better governance of employee entitlements.

Micro-governance and citizen-based security in Brazil

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Food Security and Agri-Foreign Direct Investment in Weak States: Finding the Governance Gap to Avoid ‘Land Grab’

Food security is important. A rising world population coupled with climate change creates growing pressure on global world food supplies. States alleviate this pressure domestically by attracting agri-foreign direct investment (agri-FDI). This is a high-risk strategy for weak states: the state may gain valuable foreign currency, technology and debt-free growth; but equally, investors may fail to deliver on their commitments and exploit weak domestic legal infrastructure to ‘grab’ large areas of prime agricultural land, leaving only marginal land for domestic production. A net loss to local food security and to the national economy results. This is problematic because the state must continue to guarantee its citizens’ right to food and property. Agri-FDI needs close regulation to maximise its benefit. This article maps the multilevel system of governance covering agri-FDI. We show how this system creates asymmetric rights in favour of the investor to the detriment of the host state’s food security and how these problems might be alleviated.

The Governance Gap in European Security and Defence. CEPS Policy Brief No. 310, 19 December 2013

The true causes of the EU’s inertia as a security actor in its neighbourhood and beyond are not a lack of capability or even austerity measures, but the absence of a core group of states committed to driving integration forward, argues Giovanni Faleg. Member states are reluctant to set clear common strategic priorities and struggle to agree on a revision of the institutional rules. Their strategic cultures and interests differ significantly; they hold different visions of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and are unwilling to use the CSDP instruments at their disposal.

Facilitating Mobility and Fostering Diversity: Getting EU Migration Governance to Respect the Human Rights of Migrants. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe No. 92/May 2016

Migration towards Europe has surged over the past few years, overwhelming government authorities at the national and EU levels, and fuelling a xenophobic, nationalist, populist discourse linking migrants to security threats. Despite positive advances in the courts and worthy national initiatives (such as Italy’s Operation Mare Nostrum), the EU’s governance of migration and borders has had disastrous effects on the human rights of migrants. These effects stem from the criminalisation of migrants, which pushes them towards more precarious migration routes, the widespread use of administrative detention and the processing of asylum claims under the Dublin system, and now the EU–Turkey agreement. Yet, this paper finds that with the right political leadership, the EU could adopt different policies in order to develop and implement a human rights-based approach to migration that would seek to reconcile security concerns with the human rights of migrants. Such an approach would enable member states to fully reap the rewards of a stable, cohesive, long-term migration plan that facilitates and governs mobility rather than restricts it at immense cost to the EU, the member states and individual migrants.

EU governance of the internet:analyzing Europol’s role in the development of a EU cyber crime and cyber security policies

In recent years, the European Union has come to view cyber security, and in particular, cyber crime as one of the most relevant challenges to the completion of its Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Given European societies’ increased reliance on borderless and decentralized information technologies, this sector of activity has been identified as an easy target for actors such as organised criminals, hacktivists or terrorist networks. Such analysis has been accompanied by EU calls to step up the fight against unlawful online activities, namely through increased cooperation among law enforcement authorities (both national and extra- communitarian), the approximation of legislations, and public- private partnerships. Although EU initiatives in this field have, so far, been characterized by a lack of interconnection and an integrated strategy, there has been, since the mid- 2000s, an attempt to develop a more cohesive and coordinated policy. An important part of this policy is connected to the activities of Europol, which have come to assume a central role in the coordination of intelligence gathering and analysis of cyber crime. The European Cybercrime Center (EC3), which will become operational within Europol in January 2013, is regarded, in particular, as a focal point of the EU’s fight against this phenomenon. Bearing this background in mind, the present article wishes to understand the role of Europol in the development of a European policy to counter the illegal use of the internet. The article proposes to reach this objective by analyzing, through the theoretical lenses of experimental governance, the evolution of this agency’s activities in the area of cyber crime and cyber security, its positioning as an expert in the field, and the consequences for the way this policy is currently developing and is expected to develop in the near future.